In April of 1994 I read an auction notice in the Souderton Independent listing a Nace & Godshall potato chip can. Knowing there were lots of Naces and Godshalls on my mother’s side of the family, I immediately called her to ask if I might be related to these Naces or Godshalls.
She told me that in this case Milton Nace wasn’t related, but John Godshall was her Great Grandfather. She grew up in Sellersville and knew little more other than that the potato chip factory was somewhere in Souderton. [Historical Society note: Nace & Godshall opened in 1925 and closed around 1943. It was likely located just off Reliance Road at Duke Alley.]
I attended the auction on Godshall Road on April 30th and became the proud owner of my first Nace & Godshall potato chip can. Shortly after I won the bid, a gentleman approached me and asked if I knew anything about Nace &Godshall. I told him what I knew, and he filled in some blanks.
When he was a young child, his father had a huckster route. As they came up the hill in Souderton around 5:00 in the morning by horse and wagon, there was nothing like the smell of freshly sliced potatoes frying in lard. The “factory” was a small barn in an alley located somewhere in the vicinity of Harrison Avenue. As his father chatted and loaded the wagon with the 8-ounce, twenty-five cent cans, he was treated to freshly salted chips just out of the fryer. I believe this gentleman was Harold Nyce.
I wasn’t sure of the time frame when the chips were produced, possibly in the 1920s. The previous owner of the can told me that she could remember the can being around since she was a child. Sometimes her mother used it for storage, and sometimes it was empty.
I paid $52.50 for the can that day, and found one several weeks later at Shupp’s Grove in Adamstown for just $3.00.
